BEIJING: China said on Friday it had discussed restarting long-delayed nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea’s top nuclear envoy.
The brief foreign ministry statement gave no clues about how soon any disarmament talks could restart, but it came after growing signs that North Korea wants to return to the negotiating table after quitting it in 2009.
The ministry said on its website that yesterday China’s envoy for the North Korean nuclear dispute, Wu Dawei, and the North’s nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, ”exchanged views on restarting the six-party talks.”
Before arriving in Beijing, the North’s envoy visited New York for talks with US officials, raising the prospect of a resumption of the disarmament talks among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
Analysts are sceptical, however, that the six-party process will restart anytime soon given the gulf that opened up between the rivals since the collapse of talks two years ago.
North Korea indicated last year it wanted to rejoin the on-off six-party process, but Seoul, Washington and Tokyo have doubted that Pyongyang is serious, citing its unveiling of a uranium enrichment programme last November.
Uranium enrichment could give North Korea a second pathway to a nuclear arms capability. The North has twice tested plutonium-based nuclear devices, drawing international condemnation.
US officials have emphasised they are in no rush to resume negotiations, and South Korea’s top nuclear envoy said it was unlikely the recent diplomatic activities would produce breakthroughs. The six-party talks began in August 2003, hosted by China, and in 2005 reached a broad agreement spelling out steps whereby North Korea would scrap its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic and energy aid and improved relations with the United States and Japan. (Agencies)